It is increasingly common for consumers and small businesses to use payment card products such as charge cards, credit cards, debit cards, pre-paid cards, bankcards and stored value cards rather than using cash or checks. Consumers do this because it is more convenient than using cash or checks, offers greater payment flexibility (such as revolving credit payments at low annual percentage rates, the ability to have a deposit account automatically swept at the end of the month for a full or partial payment, etc.) and because card payment products are available so widely—giving consumers many opportunities to switch to a new payment account and making it easy to open a new account, transfer a balance from an existing account and begin usage immediately.
Marketing to offer such payment account products is increasingly prevalent in our society today. Competition to successfully sell such products is fierce. The card payment industry currently offers more than 4 billion such offers each year through direct mail to U.S. households (source: BAI Global/Mail Monitor, CSFB estimates). Industry experts estimate that payment card marketers utilize more than 55 billion Internet advertising “impressions” each year, more than 2 billion telemarketing telephone calls, and spend millions of dollars to promote card payments through other channels such as in-person sales, bundling with other financial products, and on-site event marketing.
The intense marketing focuses on a variety of messages about why the particular card payment product is more beneficial for users than other card products, such as:                Low introductory annual percentage rate (for first 1–24 months of product usage)        Low “go-to” loan rates following any introductory period        Account information access tools that are available such as via the Internet and telephone        Card face designs and artwork        Reward programs linked to the payment cards that reward card usage with travel awards, merchandise, cash back, or other enticements        
As a result of the vast amount of information contained in the many offers that are received, consumers and small business decision makers are left unsure about which card payment products represent a sound choice for them based on their future spending levels, average sales transaction amount, revolving credit management, servicing options, lifestyle interests, and other personal parameters.
Also, consumers are often wary of the various financial institution practices related to such products, such as policies that dictate when accounts can be “re-priced” with a new annual percentage rate or when terms such as late fees and other penalty charges can be changed. Some consumers feel that the growing revenues reported by publicly-traded, large financial institutions are due to onerous lending and account offering terms aggressively pursued by these institutions, and/or overlay aggressive account management practices such as the imposition of late fees. Some consumers feel large financial institutions manage such programs to create a level of profitability for the institution that is “unfair” or takes more than a perceived reasonable share of consumer and merchant revenues derived from these card payment products.
There is a need for a system and method that assists institutions that offer such card payment products to stand out among the marketing clutter of the industry and allows consumers to evaluate card payment offers and gain assurances that the card payment provider is offering a fair deal. The customers should receive quality card payment products and high-level associated service at a reasonable cost, with the card payment product issuer receiving a reasonable, but not excessive, return.
It is known in the prior art that mutual insurance companies owned by their policyholders can provide funds back to policyholders at specific time periods after the company's operating, marketing, overhead and other costs and expenses are met. Similarly, other insurance companies (e.g., USAA) provide rebates to car insurance policyholders or home insurance policyholders on an annual basis. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,372 to Burton, et. al., and assigned to Meridian Enterprises, discloses providing rewards to a cardholder based on that cardholder achieving the cardholder's assigned level of performance. However, the prior art does not have card payment account product (e.g., credit card accounts) systems that manage to designated profit levels (or other aggregate financial targets) and provide returns to participating cardholders.